The Dickinson press., 1887-10-15
OVERWORKED BRAINS.
4 POINT AT WHICH LABOR CEASES
TO BE STRENGTHENING.

s'oSit SSoS1S
TO BE STRENGTHENING.
One of the Earliest Indications OF Brain
Exhaustion-Stcps Toward the Verge
of Observation-Disclosures Heaped Upon the
Minds of tho Young,
There is such n thing us mind strengthening
work. In truth it is, as every Psychologist
knows, only by work, minds, or, more cor
rectly speaking, brains can he strengthened
i'll their growth and naturally developed.
The exercise of those centers of the nervous
system, whose functions what we call con-
seriousness and intellect are associated is
us essential to their nutrition US activity
is To the healthy growth of any other part
of the organism, whether nervous OF. mus
cular. Every part Of the living body is de-
velopcd, a,l enjoys vitality, by the law
which makes the appropriation Of food de-
pendent upon and commensurate with tue
amount OF work it does. 1t feeds in propor-
ton as its works, US truly as it works in pro-
portion as it feeds. This canon of organic
life is the foundati III of those estimates
which Psychologists form when they compute
the value of food in weight lifting power. 1t
Is, however, necessary to recognize that,
although these propositions are true i'll the
abstract, they need the introduction of Il new
in,eger or combining power before any sum
of results can be worked out.
We know that food is practically Just as
truly outside the body after it has been eaten,
digestetl, md even taken in the blood current,
as it is when it lies on the table. Nutrition is
At. t;.-, r,,t:~ AL 80. "
ponds OIL the appetite and feeding power,
which is something different from the organic
need, of the tissue with which the nutrient
fluid is brought into contact. Again, any
particular part Of the organism may be so
enough left to feed. 1t is n matter Of the
highest practical moment TINT this fact
should IKE recognized. There is undoubtedly
a point at which work ceases to DO strength
ing and becomes exhausting, self exhausting
and self destructive so far as the particular
issue i'll activity is concerned.
LEFT UTTERLY rowERLESs.
Work may lie carried too far, in fact to
such II point that not only the last reserve of
power for action, but the ultimate unit, so to
say, OF the force of the nutrition, which is, us
We now believe, Identical with the force of
general activity, may be expended i'll work
and the organism left so utterly powerlcss
that its exhausted tissues can no longer np-
propriate the food supplied or placed within
necessary this should be understood. 1t hasa
special bearing on the question of brain work
in childhood and incidence.
Just as extreme weakness and faintness of
tho body rs n whole produce r~estlessless and
lpSS ri rpptrn1 & oYfrap,a ay1,oucf;o, 90 %lo
brain produces mental agitation and loss of
healthy self consciousness This is how and
why the ''overworked' become deranged.
One of the earliest indications, or symptoms,
of brain exhaustion is commonly irritability;
then CONS sleepleSsness of the sort which
Ems to consist i'll inability to cease thinking
either OF Il particular subject OF things in gen
ernl; next. the mental unrestful or uncon-
trollahle thought gets the better of tho will,
even during the ordinary hours of wakeful-
ness and activity, which is Il step further to-
ward the verge of insanity than the mere per-
sistence of thought at the hour Of sleep
this WY lies madness; and, finally, the think
ing faculty, or, as we say, the Imagination,
gets the better of the will and asserts suprem-
acy for its phantoms, those of sight or hear
ing being the most turbulent and dominant
which happen to be most commonly used in
intellectual work, and therefore most deyel-
opcd by tho individual c~erebrum-this ia
| madness.
FROM BAD TO
Such is the story of overwork cf the brain
OF mind: and it is easy to see that at any stage
of the progress from bad to worse the will
may 10 overpowered and the Judgment per-
verified in such manner as to impel the victim
Of this mind trouble to seek refuge in death.
or to so disorder his consciousness that he sup
poses himself to DO acting in obedience to
some just and worthy belcst, when he com.
mits an act of self destruction or does some
thing in the doing Of which he accidentally
dies. Such, in the main, ia tho story Of sui
eide from overwork.
What, then, can be the excuse pleadable by
those who heap OH the brains Of the young or
adolescent such burdens of mind labor and
worry as exhaust their very faculties of self
help and leave them q prey to the vagaries of
a starved brain! We pity the suffering of
those shipwrecked sailors who, after exposure
in al open boat, perhaps without food, for
hours or days, "go mad, !" and, raving of feast
and pleasures, the antitheses of their actual
experience, fall OH each other or throw
themselves overheard. Have we no pity for
brains dying Of lack Of food because we have
compelled them to expend their very last
unit of force in work, and now they are dis
traught i'll the act of dying?
1t may be u sublime ideal, that Of a highly
educated people; but if it should happen that
the realization of this beautiful dream OF orr
philosophic reformers can only be achieved
by the slaughter OF the weak, it will scarcely
console the national conscience to reflect
that, after all, "the survival of the fttest" is
the law of nature.-Lancet.